Sourdough Part 17

[Steffos666]

It does! For something that is really just flour and water it really good. Cost about 30p to make yet "artisan" bread in some of the shops that look similar and don't taste as good are about £4! Really glad I tried again. The current starter is so active that it was escaping the jar in the fridge!

Looks good and I dont know wether I have written but I kind of remember to have said one day that at first you cant wait to bake with the halffinished starter and when the braid ist done the starter is bubbling with air.

Still doing mine no nice pictures here but I have noticed that I have problems to make wheat sourdough when its too warm inside.

So no Sourdough Ciabatta in the summer

 

[glenwilson]

I had quite a bit of excess starter and used that to make a few flatbreads - added chive and herbs onto it. Went well with the curry we had.

We will have to take the starter on holiday (when we go) so we can feed it!

Though it is cheap to make it really is very satisfying to produce. Have been using the bread machine a lot less recently too!

 

[Steffos666]

I had quite a bit of excess starter and used that to make a few flatbreads - added chive and herbs onto it. Went well with the curry we had.

We will have to take the starter on holiday (when we go) so we can feed it!

Though it is cheap to make it really is very satisfying to produce. Have been using the bread machine a lot less recently too!

Mine can take two weeks in the fridge - then there is a layer of probably yeast on top I can scrape away and feed it again for using it the next day

 

[RIZLOID]

Im a little bewildered with this starter business. I've watched some YT vids and they all do the same, they take 2-3 spoons of the starter and feed it and discard the rest.
Why cant you just feed the whole thing without discarding any of it ?

 

[glenwilson]

Im a little bewildered with this starter business. I've watched some YT vids and they all do the same, they take 2-3 spoons of the starter and feed it and discard the rest.
Why cant you just feed the whole thing without discarding any of it ?

I have never thrown the starter away. If you have a big enough jar then there is plenty of room. When it gets too full I just take half of the starter and put that into a bowl and then gradually add some flour to it so you get a decent dough consistency and make a couple of rolls from that. Or you can just cook any excess starter into a hot dry frying pan - make sure it isn't too thick and after a couple of minutes each side you have a nice flat bread.

If you just follow the instructions you can end up with a wet starter. Aim for a starter that is more like a paste and that seems to have made the difference for me. Loaves I end up with are all different despite accurately weighing everything but they are all nice to eat.

 

[RIZLOID]

I was thinking of doing a starter although I have no intentions of making bread, just to fry the stuff into pancakes and try different toppings, choc sauce, golden syrup (dont like honey) etc. and experiment some.

 

[Steffos666]

Im a little bewildered with this starter business. I've watched some YT vids and they all do the same, they take 2-3 spoons of the starter and feed it and discard the rest.
Why cant you just feed the whole thing without discarding any of it ?

You need only 5g starter per 50g of flour and 50ml of water for the next generation. If you keep less in the fridge it isnt protected against other bacteria and mold

so if you use less you have to discard the rest. In the beginning I kept everything all the time and it began to smell very sour and the glass became more full every time

In the beginning when you create the starter you cant do anything usefull with it anyways but in the beginning you can keep everything anyways.

 

[CapHunterx]

Anything related to baking except for simple bread and cakes. Is a hell I tell u. It's just like brewing beer and cooking.It will fail on u and it will do stupid stuff.

but to be fair those look pretty good. My grandgramdmother left us a receipt for making her delicious cake. Looking it rise in the oven almost done!!!, "Look mom it looks delicious". To taking it out and literally see it collapse into a mushy pile of cake stuff.

 

[glenwilson]

Baking and brewing is almost like alchemy where you turn simple ingredients into edible gold.

Or if it goes wrong you end up with either a weird shaped solid object that you can use as a brick or doorstop or something to feed the birds in the garden. The ultimate failure is when your wife won't even say anything nice about it and it remains on the bird table because even they are not that desperate enough to eat it.

 

[Steffos666]

Baking and brewing is almost like alchemy where you turn simple ingredients into edible gold.

Or if it goes wrong you end up with either a weird shaped solid object that you can use as a brick or doorstop or something to feed the birds in the garden. The ultimate failure is when your wife won't even say anything nice about it and it remains on the bird table because even they are not that desperate enough to eat it.

It sure is alchemy and biology in one

In the beginning I was afraid of poisoning us with faulty bacteria or yeast ^^ Its a wonder what humans came up with and we can even smell and taste if it didnt work well

 

[Steffos666]

Anything related to baking except for simple bread and cakes. Is a hell I tell u. It's just like brewing beer and cooking.It will fail on u and it will do stupid stuff.

but to be fair those look pretty good. My grandgramdmother left us a receipt for making her delicious cake. Looking it rise in the oven almost done!!!, "Look mom it looks delicious". To taking it out and literally see it collapse into a mushy pile of cake stuff.

My wife has to do the special cakes I dont like that egg beating stuff - Every time my biscuit dough climbs it falls back down again when it gets cold I know the feeling

 

[CapHunterx]

My wife has to do the special cakes I dont like that egg beating stuff - Every time my biscuit dough climbs it falls back down again when it gets cold I know the feeling

Yeh it's frustrating. So I just buy the boxes where you just add butter and those work fine for me. But don't mention alchemy it triggers my chemistry brain. You cant make gold johsep wright, philosopher stone is not reall

 

[Akhara]

Yeh it's frustrating. So I just buy the boxes where you just add butter and those work fine for me. But don't mention alchemy it triggers my chemistry brain. You cant make gold johsep wright, philosopher stone is not reall

Fact or Fiction?: Lead Can Be Turned into Gold

Particle accelerators make possible the ancient alchemist’s dream—but at a steep cost

www.scientificamerican.com

Bismuth works though

 

[glenwilson]

A lot of the bread making process is getting the gluten to do its stuff through kneading. Then you lob in the yeast/starter to do its stuff and then we screw it up by bunging it to the oven!

Packet mixes are fine because they are just combining known ingredients in a way that works. Obviously you can buy separate ingredients but you then have to work with a recipe and the oven to get it right as egg size, flour, and so on can vary. Adds to the fun though.

 

[glenwilson]

An experiment. Was feeding the starter so thought I would try this as an experiment. Added the flour and water together and mixed it up and then added the starter to that and mixed it. Checked that it looked the right sort of consistency in the bread maker dish. Our machine is quite old and doesn't have a sourdough option so set it for wholemeal which is a 5 hour cycle and gave it a 3 hour delay to give the starter time to work within the mixture. Not tried it yet but it looks OK (if a little bit weird).

 

[RIZLOID]

Before

and after cooking

 

[glenwilson]

Had to do a new starter as the old one was very acidic and not that active. Used the old starter to make a pizza base so it didn't get wasted.

• With the new one I feed it with about 75gm flour and 55gm water which works for the flour we use.
• Then add about 130gm to 75gm flour and about 60 gm water. Mixture can be a bit sloppy at this point and leave that for 8-12 hours.
• Then add the flour you want for the size you are making. For us I normally add about 400gm at this point.Start kneading the doigh and add water until it is soft but not quite sticky or wet. After kneading for about 5 mins leave it for another 12 hours to double in size.
• Then knock back the dough and put it into the proving basket for about 4 hours.
• Turn it out on to a baking tray and bake for about about 50 minutes.

Have now done three loaves this way and it is much more consistent. One loaf was just white flour, another was wholemeal spelt and the third a mixture.

I think the problem was that I was feeding the starter too often and not using it. When making the bread I was measuring the water rather than looking at the consistency of the dough and adding water as needed for the recipe rather than adjusting the water appropriately. The results have been great, as good (if not better) as the loaves we bought in Germany. Really glad I persevered as it is well worth the effort.